Thursday, April 8, 2010

Three friends discover that they are all pregnant at once. For one it was longed for but for the other two it was definitely not! Their lives intermingle as they go through their pregnancies and their friendships become more important as they choose new things in their lives.

This was another lovely read by Milly Johnson. The Yorkshire Pudding Club was her first novel and I enjoyed it just as much as A Spring Affair which I happened to read first. I did find it didn’t grab me in the beginning in the same manner as A Spring Affair, but regardless, I loved this chick lit tale and can’t recommend her novels enough.I laughed and cried and noticed the characteristic Milly Johnson smile that appears on my face as I read her novels. It’s a dopey, silly, happy grin that is plastered on my face for chunks of her books and it’s such a lovely feeling! This grin alternates with sharp intakes of breath at times though because her chick lit is not always so light and fluffy and has heavy subjects thrown into the mix, but I think this makes me love her stories even more.The characters Milly Johnson creates are so well developed and The Yorkshire Pudding Club was no exception. I cared about all the women and wanted happy endings for all of them. There were times I wanted to give some of them a good shake, but that just shows how much I wanted them to get their act together! Her stories move along at a perfect pace, not too slow or fast and I enjoyed how the women played off each other and how each one had such a different story and attitude towards pregnancy. The only reason I gave it a less than perfect rating was that there were a few reasons it took me a while to get into this book. First, the story is about three friends and alternates from each one’s perspective which slowed the beginning. I also had a hard time with all the characters naïve understanding about early pregnancy symptoms (this could just be due to my over-education of the subject though). But once I had a handle on their characters and worked my way past the point where they realized they were pregnant, I couldn’t put this book down.The last reason it took me a bit to get into this novel was that I had a difficult time with the British terms used (Plonk, Bairn and Bonny to name a few), but once I got used to them, I became fully immersed yet again in the wonderful world Milly Johnson created. I was able figure the odd words out, having read many British chick lit books in the past, but this had more than I had ever seen! Her subsequent novels don’t contain as many though, so don’t be put off all her novels if you weren’t able to understand the terms above!So, if you don’t mind some naïve women, and getting to know them in rounds and can understand British terms, you’re laughing and will love this book! Not to say that I didn’t – I did, once I got past all that, I wasn’t able to put The Yorkshire Pudding Club down.

Kathryn - 4.5 Star

Found this one funny and charming and lovely! I believe this is Milly Johnson’s first novel and I was happy to find that the core things I loved about A Spring Affair were present even in her debut.The Yorkshire Pudding Club is a simple story with some intense parts, emotional and hilarious- I laughed out loud lots of times (for example the prologue and the chalk drawing on the hill!) and would actually probably read this one again. I did find that after the prologue it took me a bit of time to warm up to the characters again- I think this was because none of them (even the one who wanted to get pregnant) seemed to have any idea what the signs might be and it drove me insane that it took so long for them to work it out. The one thing you may notice about this debut novel is that there are many terms that perhaps might not be recognizable to the North American reader- for example “sarnie” and “who the chuff” come up in the prologue and may cause a few re-reads to get the full meaning. I didn’t notice them until Lydia pointed them out- guess that’s where my English heritage comes in handy- but don’t stop reading because they soon melt into the story and makes it much more cosy…does that make sense?